(Letter) Chinese Men’s Weightlifting Champion Was A Girl

You think after the underage gymnasts allegation, lip syncing, Han children dressed as minority, and modern warriors pretending to be ancient warriors at the opening ceremony, China’s Olympic woes can’t get any worse – think again.

According to a Chinanews report, men’s weightlifing champion Long Qinquan was a girl. During an interview family photos of Long dressed as a girl was produced:

Charles Liu, is this what you call news? I think you’re just here to stir up shit! The Olympics is China’s chance to shine and show the world just how much progress has been made since Mao died! You just couldn’t leave bad enough alone, could you!?! Hmph!

If you want attention, next time try “Chinese women’s weightlifting champion actually a man”…heck, take out the weightlifting, cuz any sport inserted in that statement will still generate lots of buzz. Maybe competitors should pee in a bottle and submit a cheek swab.

I just saw the NBC broadcast of the uneven bar event in a motel room. The analyst was complaining that He’s score should have been lower than Liukin’s because He supposedly had more deductible errors. I won’t discuss that since I really don’t know much about it. But to my untrained eyes, the second Chinese athlete, with the same difficulty score, clearly had a more smooth execution and landing than Liukin’s routine. She was however scored lower and only got the bronze. Somehow that wasn’t raised at all in the telecast.

Funny post and funny story. If the media were to pick up on the story I think it would soften others’ impressions of China a little.

DJ & Nimrod:

Re: Media Bias
I think the only opinion that mattered in any of those articles was Liukin’s. She also addressed DJ’s comment about the girl in third place.

Bloomberg: “”Is this fair? I play by the rules and so in my opinion I would have to say yes,” Liukin said. “The Chinese girl did an excellent routine and actually the girl who got third I think got a little under-scored. She did a great routine. It’s unfair to her, it’s unfair to some people, but the judges have their own opinion and there’s nothing you can do about it.””

Kansas City Star: “Was it fair? “I play by the rules, so I have to say yes,” Liukin said. “The Chinese girl did an excellent routine. “Actually, I thought, the girl that was third was underscored.””

Google:
Link didn’t track for me.

P.S. Are we searching for negative media coverage on Google News? The Kansas City Star?

This report is such anti-China BS propaganda, according to my research Charles Liu has been known to communicate with US congressmen linked to the NED, my question is: what orders did Charles Liu’s anti-China paymasters send in reply?

Frankly I don’t think there is much to be complained about how NBC and other reporters approached this particular case. It’s only natural to root for the athlete of your side and feel for her near miss at the gold. I was just pointing out the fact that in doing so, there is no reason to expect such coverage to be fair and objective. They are not and should not be expected to be so.

Liukin, on the other hand, behaved quite graciously. It was nice for her to acknowledge the second Chinese athlete, Yang Yilin.

By the way, seeing the tiny He embracing and lifting up Yang after Yang’s excellent performance for her to wave to the audience was quite moving.

Another thing I hate to watch on NBC is the Diving competition. They are so biased towards the Americans who can’t dive for squat yet those NBC commentators are giving them praises for them while point out mistakes of the Chinese divers. I just wish those NBC commentators would just shut up. The Chinese divers won because of all the time and hard work they put in perfecting those dives, whereas most of the American divers are diving for a College scholarships.

To compare homer bias, it would be interesting to know how CCTV commentators, or whoever is providing coverage in China, described the same competition. In the end, any sport that is “judged” will have human biases, for just like beauty, the “perfect routine” is in the eyes of the beholder. This is in contrast to quantitative sports, where, for instance, there can be no dispute that Bolt ran 100m the fastest.

Actually, CCTV admires foreign athletes a lot. If a Chinese favorite loses for some reason, CCTV commentators would be saying “he for some reason did not perform up to par” or “this is something we did not expect and he will have lots to think about”. I’d love to see somebody pull up an example on CCTV akin to “that European/French/Australian/Russian/Canadian judge is corrupt and must be dismissed!” “we were cheated out of a medal!”

In fact, I don’t even like the new gymnastics scoring system. If anything, in the case of a four-judge tie, they should add back the highest-lowest judges to get a six-score average, not remove one more scores to get a three-score average. But still, the result under one system isn’t any more “unfair” than under another. If anything, chance is the most fair thing there is — if one’s beef is with human judging.

Nimrod, did you follow the Chinese media after China’s men foil team closely lost the final match second time in a row in 2004? The team was billed as China’s fencing “dream team”. 2 consecutive silvers in 2000 and 2004 were hard to swallow.

Liukin gets all my respect for what she said afterward. It reminds me of Xiong Ni after his loss to Greg Louganis in 1988. Often its not the victory but the loss that defines us.

If you choose to see a snowdrop as a hailstone, then you will of course feel the pain.
If you denigrate artistic licence and a zeal (overly so) for perfection as fakery, then the Olympics are a travesty of party propaganda to its people, rather than a genuine occasion of self-affirmation for a country that has gone through generations of sacrifice and many years of hard work.
Why transmute the nitpicking of envious foreign journalists into China’s woes?
Is it woeful for Lin Miaoke? Perhaps not. Her commercial fees are reportedly to have gone up.
For Yang Peiyi? Perhaps – but that’s due to the callousness of Western journalists, more than the cold calculation of the ceremony’s organisers.
Woeful for Liukin, but not for China’s female gymnasts, despite the campaign to deny them the medal over the age issue.
So that weightlifter is competing in the wrong gender category? What’s so woeful?
Turn dross into gold by sending her/him to the Gay Games. It shows the tolerance and diversity of Chinese society. After all, China has a long tradition of cutting the sleeve and sharing the Peach.
It all comes down to that old chestnut: whether you see your glass half-empty or half-full.

Is it really? Maybe or maybe not. Who are we to say? The Chinese are getting more medals because there is more disposable income to spend on athletics programs, especially those bourgeoisie sports that garner lots of medals.

Well, don’t sell the Chinese short. You need talent and training to succeed at the Olympic level. Not surprising that among 1.3 billion, you’ll find trainable talent. And the Chinese training machinery is oft-discussed. But whatever the motivation, anyone who makes it to the Olympics has demonstrated incredible dedication, regardless of whether they produce a podium finish.

I dont believe it is true, as 77 and 79 old can hardly work, Sending to prison would be a big trouble for jail’s guard. IF they are thrown behind bar, more likely it just keep them there till after Olympic, cuz they REPEATLY apply for permission.

BTW, I am not trying to find excuse for chinese government, no protest at all doesnt sound good to me. But these two old persons’s repeatly applying sounds weird to me. Why didnt the report mention what they want to protest ? I wouldnt be surprised if they are Falun gong followers.

Two elderly women were sentenced to a year of labor re-education after they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics against their 2001 eviction from their homes, according to the son of one of the would-be protesters.

@FOARP
The thing is the only souce is that unnamed ‘human right group’.Too little information for the time being, as no one knows exactly why those two women were penalised (if they were indeed penalised). I am with Wang Wei on this one, it’s hard to believe they got 2 years simply for applying a protest permit, got to be some other reasons as well.

where words have been ‘twisted’? If there was misunderstanding, it was yours. I should add that these two ladies could still be sent to camp if they violate the restrictions placed on them. And the point still stands – people are being punished even for applying to protest through the channels the government established for exactly that purpose, and not just by provincial authorities but by those of the capital also.

Public security claims the RTL probation (所外执行) Wu and Wang received were for previous violation of public order (lighting fire crackers outside Zhongnanhai, equivlant of the Whitehouse or 10 Downing St.) and illegal protest (banners in Tiananmen.) Wang’s daughter confirmed this. The administrative decision was made on 7/30, according to the police.

Would someone setting off fire cracker outside 10 Downing, in consideration of terrorism fear, not get arrested? Be honest.

@Charles Liu – In the old days nothing would have happened, since 2005, when Blair brought in laws banning protests within the square mile (i.e., centre of London) without first notifying the police, you might get arrested, but the most you’d get is a fine. It certainly isn’t going to stop me going to Parliament Square and burning my ID card if the government goes through with its plans to launch a compulsory ID card system.

FOARP, by ‘twisted’ (just finished reading both articles properly at that point), I meant no mentioning of the previous violation bit in the Times, should have made myself clearer.
As for other applicants, most of their cases seems to be dealt with or addressed. Whether some of them will be punished for daring to apply for a protest permit, I have to wait and see.
By the way, anyone else having trouble with submitting a comment in the Times? Lately my comments just don’t show up there.

SK @ 52, please get your facts straight. They each got 1 year of RTL probation, eg. the sentence was suspended. That’s equivlant of getting a probation in the States for DUI or climbing the whitehouse fence while protesting against the war (that’s if you don’t get shot for stunts like that.)